‘CBS Evening News’ revamp gives it a first-day bump, but ratings still down

After a 14% spike in ratings for the debut of the revamped “CBS Evening News,” ratings appeared to quickly settle down as the week went on.

The Jan. 27, 2025, edition of “Evening,” which featured a new set, music, graphics, format and anchors, posted around 5.2 million total viewers, which was a decent improvement of former anchor Norah O’Donnell’s numbers a year ago.

Those figures weren’t enough to elevate it above its typical third-place finish against “NBC Nightly News” and “ABC World News Tonight.”

As the week went on, however, the numbers didn’t improve much and the show ended the ratings week with an average of 4.8 million viewers and 688,000 in the adults age 25-52 demo (these figures do not include Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, because ABC, CBS and NBC all opted to retitle their broadcasts that evening so the ratings technically did not count toward the averages).

That’s down 2% in the demo and 4% compared to week-over-week figures and about 4% in both metrics year-over-year.

It’s not uncommon, of course, for shows to enjoy a spike in viewers when new talent or other changes arrive. When former “Today” anchor Katie Couric took over the broadcast back in 2006, numbers shot up to 14 million viewers on the first night. By the end of the week, they were down to 8 million (that figure was still high compared to ABC and NBC, but ultimately, the numbers ended up dipping even lower, sending it back to third place). Network news ratings have also largely been shrinking across the board as well.

Also common is for revamped shows to stay the course — perhaps with some minor tweaks — after their debut, with changes sometimes rolling out over the coming days or weeks, with some executives and producers believing it may take some time for major changes to be accepted and gain word-of-mouth.

“Evening” underwent a dramatic overhaul — it switched to a dual male anchor format with Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson in New York (along with D.C. contributor Margaret Brennan).

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It is also focusing on a strategy that goes beyond simply headlines and breaking news that has already been covered by other outlets during the day and instead offers longer pieces and more context with stories designed to look at bigger picture issues. At least some of this format is inspired by “60 Minutes.”

Whether that format will resonate with today’s TV audiences, who are used to scrolling past short bits of content, remains to be seen. The show could, however, end up performing better in key demographics where audiences like more in-depth, thoughtful journalism, though the early figures don’t indicate it hasn’t become a major success with them yet.